Bill Gates Says Trump Is Wrong to Call AI Risk a Hoax

Bill Gates just publicly contradicted the sitting president on one of the year's most contentious tech debates. Asked directly about Trump's dismissal of AI risk warnings, Gates told NBC's Meet the Press on Sunday: "It's not a hoax at all."

Gates didn't stop at disagreement — he laid out a specific, alarming stake for inaction. He warned AI is "certainly powerful enough to drive events that... cause a billion deaths," framing the danger around empowering malicious actors rather than a runaway machine takeover

He rejected the idea that AI is already out of control, noting flatly, "we can turn off the computer," while still insisting regulation is "absolutely" necessary alongside industry self-policing

He pushed back on Trump's argument that slowing down would hand China an advantage, saying he disagrees China wouldn't also adopt safeguards if Washington moved first

Gates was explicit about wanting a direct audience with the president, saying: "I hope that, given my life's work in the field, my saying how unique and different this is and how concerned I am, will add to what he's hearing from other people."

 He also argued the debate has become needlessly nationalistic, framing calls for safeguards as a shared interest rather than a competitive weakness. His remarks land in a month already crowded with high-profile disagreement — Anthropic's Dario Amodei calling for slower development, Elon Musk backing him, and Trump rejecting all of it at the UN as recently as last week — making Gates the latest, and arguably most establishment, voice to publicly break from the administration's current stance.